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Monday, December 6th, 2010

Another week and another mixed bag of weather. I think it rained so much last week that I had to scrub the moss out from behind my ear early this year! The sunny day on Friday seemed to make up for what ever weather related blues I was feeling even though I had to spend much of the day indoors at the Annual OGCSA Pesticide Seminar.

We had to make a change out on the course this week. The old snag that was between the 3rd and 11th cart path had to come down. Stone Creek prides itself on providing lots of natural habitat but this tree, which was pretty much dead when we finished the construction, finally rotted to a point that we couldn't risk the chance of it falling over and hurting someone. This old snag provided nesting habitat for many creatures including pollinator bees, wasps, wood peckers and many bird species over its time. I use this picture in presentations to show the benefit of preserving dead trees, showing up close how many holes were actually in the thing. I was literally the "Holiday Inn" for the birds.

I am so excited about Steve's latest project. All of our old cart path bollards had been rotting and were looking rather disheveled, Mark and Doug from the Parks Department cut up some round fence posts for us to use and Steve thought he could dress them up by putting our logo on the the top of them. Steve put his blacksmith hat on and went right to work and he built a "Stone Creek" brand just like one the cattle ranchers would use. He proceeded to build a coal fire in the bucket of the loader and went around to each bollard and laid a brand into the top of each one. What a huge difference it made. It really added a custom look to the course. Steve is not just a great equipment technician but an artist as well. I love his creativity and his desire to make Stone Creek a better place. Great job Steve!

GCM

The second of my quarterly contributions to Golf Course Management magazine will be out in the December issue. This month I wrote about a special person I met this last summer while making a homeowner "well lawn" visit. She, an environmentalist and I, a golf course superintendent. You can imagine how our conversation began. Follow this link to get the rest of the story:

Last year at this time I was attending the Syngenta Business Institute at Wake Forrest University and I had to watch the Civil War game from a hotel bar in Winston-Salem, North Carolina...at midnight! I certainly missed the great educational opportunity but it was great to be back in town for the game this year. There is something different about cheering for your team when you are not all the way across the country.

I woke up Saturday morning expecting to watch the game from my living room when Tracy told me that a friend on Facebook had a couple tickets to the game. I made a call and bingo, two tickets, club level and FREE! I grabbed Henry and out the door we went. What a privilege to be there and witness such a great event. I remember my days at OSU when the country never paid attention to the game. Today it's a nationally televised, prime time event complete with ESPN's Gameday! (I must say the Gameday bus was certainly painted the correct color) The State of Oregon should be proud of both programs. The results weren't exactly in favor of the Beavs but the Ducks now have a great opportunity to show the nation who number one is. Don't blow it Ducks, an opportunity like this doesn't happen often. Take it to Auburn and the over rated SEC!